


The Sorceress and the Assassin

by sageclover61



Series: Bard Assassin [4]
Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Assassin Jaskier | Dandelion, BAMF Jaskier | Dandelion, Dating, F/M, Getting to Know Each Other, Jaskier | Dandelion Has a Past, Jaskier | Dandelion Needs a Hug, M/M, Multi, Musician Jaskier | Dandelion, Non-Human Jaskier | Dandelion, misunderstood Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:49:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22626622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sageclover61/pseuds/sageclover61
Summary: Yennefer is worried that there was more to the djinn than that it merely attacked Jaskier, and takes the opportunity afterwards to get to know them both better. Concern turns into mutual respect, might turn into love.Takes place between episodes 5 and 6. Book of one-shots to fill the six year time gap.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, Jaskier | Dandelion/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg
Series: Bard Assassin [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1623745
Comments: 21
Kudos: 585





	The Sorceress and the Assassin

**Author's Note:**

> I had trouble deciding how I wanted to format this, but I realized that by doing chapters, I have more freedom to write these shorts as I'm inspired to do so.
> 
> Mentions of a rapist and allusions to possible human trafficking.

Jaskier was taking a bath in a very cold river the first time he saw Yennefer after Rinde. It was the first water source he’d managed to find after the last contract he’d taken with the assassin’s guild and he cared more about washing off the event than his own comfort.

He was pretty sure this was snowmelt, but he didn’t care.

The mark had been a young lord who took pleasure in taking all the pretty young girls to his bed and then causing them to disappear if there was any suspicion of them being pregnant. The contract had been taken out by his wife, who’d decided he’d disappeared one too many of her favorite ladies-in-waiting.

It was the kind of contract that bothered him less because the young lord really was a monster, and nobody else was ever going to take him to task for his actions. The real reason he felt so disgusting was because it wasn’t only the pretty young girls the lord liked to bed, but apparently the pretty young men too.

He was well used to people wanting to sleep with him for his looks or his fame or the pretty things he said to them, but Jaskier generally preferred his partners to  _ not  _ brag about bedding him in the same sentence that they referred to him as the Witcher’s slut.

The young lord hadn’t deserved the mercy kill, but Jaskier had been unable to resist a well deserved somne sign before he ran out of excuses to keep himself from being fucked over a table.

It was times like these that he wished he didn’t have to part ways with Geralt so much more frequently than he had needed to before. At least if Geralt had been present, no one would have faulted the Witcher for slaying someone for trying to take what everyone now very clearly assumed  _ belonged  _ to The White Wolf.

“You’re going to get hypothermia if you stay in there much longer. Wouldn’t you prefer a warm bath and a hot meal in an inn?”

“What I’d really like would be for the stench and feeling of lingering touches from the rapist I just killed to go away.” He may not like being away from Geralt’s side, but at least being alone with Yennefer meant he could be as blunt as he liked. She knew who he was or at least enough that he could speak freely with her.

It didn’t matter if she told his secrets to Geralt. He did care, but if Yennefer brought an end to his guise, that was just all the sooner he could stop lying. It was getting wearisome. He didn’t think she would do that to him, though. It had seemed to him before that Yen was in fact worried about whether or not Geralt was good enough for him, not the other way around.

“Another scoundrel take offense at your sleeping his wife?”

“I miss those days.” He’d taken for granted how easy life had been when he’d first started following Geralt and his only real concern had been about the husbands or wives or parents of those he took to bed. “His wife was tired of the young servants disappearing. The only shame was that his death was not particularly satisfying. I’d had it by the time he was trying to bed me even as he reviled me for being the “white wolf’s slut”. I’m no one’s plaything. Not any more.”

He was cold. So cold. While also not being cold enough, because maybe if he reached the point of being so cold his whole body went numb then the sensation of the young lord stroking his shoulder and back would finally go away.

“Do those bardling assassins with extended lives even get hypothermia?” She sighed. “Nevermind. A warm bath and a hot meal right this instant, I insist. Jaskier, come here.”

“But this cold bath is so much more satisfying.” His fingers were starting to go numb, though. And he’d stopped being able to feel his feet awhile ago. “What if I’d rather drown?”

She didn’t answer in words he could understand, but a moment later he was falling into a bath that was significantly warmer than the icy water he’d been bathing in. The water wasn’t hot, he didn’t think, as going from cold water to hot water could easily send one into shock, but it was still much nicer than he felt like he deserved.

“What was that for? Where are my things?”

Yennefer handed him a steaming mug. “Your things are in the corner. Were you planning on sleeping in the wilderness without so much as a bedroll to keep you warm?”

“A goat ate my bedroll. More than a decade ago. I don’t mind.” The tea was warm and delicious. “Why did you bring me here?”

“I wanted to check in on you, make sure you were okay. I merely decided that your spending a few nights here would be healthier for you than your drowning in ice water. Unless you’d prefer I take you to Geralt and inform him that a potion addled your mind and you’re not to be left to your own devices for the next week.”

“He wouldn’t believe you.”

“He might. I haven’t lied to him about anything half as important as the part where you’re an assassin.”

That was the rub, wasn’t it. He could never  _ really  _ be himself with the people that were most important to him.

“At least he would hold me, even if you lied to him about my ability to consent to more than that.” He wanted to be curled up next to Geralt’s side as the Witcher kept him warm and safe and sated in all the best ways.

He  _ could  _ just go rogue and let Geralt protect him,  _ but he couldn’t be sure Geralt would still protect him after a revelation such as that one. _

“Have you written any new ballads lately?” Yennefer asked after a few more minutes of silence.

“I started one about the new Princess of Cintra, but it’s not finished yet,” he answered. Did Yennefer know that Geralt had a child surprise? Perhaps not. He would have remembered if she had been there, and there had been no rumors anywhere, not even in Cintra, about the events of the Betrothal Banquet. It was almost as if it had never happened.

“I heard some interesting stories about Pavetta’s Betrothal, but nothing specific. I think you and Geralt are the only ones I’ve met who were there.”

“Nasty bloodbath,” Jaskier replied, assuming that was likely the reason behind it. “Geralt was right in the middle of it, as per the usual. Can I get out of this bath? There’s no way I’m getting any cleaner and my skin is all wrinkly.” He held up his very pruned fingers up as proof.

“If you must,” Yennefer relented. She brought an animal fur and clean clothing over to him so he could dry off and change.

The clothing wasn’t his, but it fit well, and more importantly, they were soft enough to sleep in.

She conjured a table and chairs and plenty of delicious smelling food for them to eat. “Let us dine, and then I shall retire to my own room.”

  
  


He didn’t get to stay as long as he would have liked, as the next morning his next contract had arrived with too much haste necessary, even with Yennefer offering to get him as close to the destination as was safe.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is @sageclover61
> 
> I would absolutely love some ideas for what kinds of "dates" Yennefer and Jaskier or Yennefer and Geralt or all three of them might have during the six years after the djinn and before the dragon.


End file.
